openSUSE 11.0 - Micro Review

[This is a review in progress]

I was in the middle of switching back to Kubuntu, had my entire /home copied over to my external, and.....I spied, will my little eye, an openSuse 11.0 LiveCD laying on my desk. Hmm, KDE4 and Suse...like a fine wine, it will only get better with time. On to the hard drive it goes, Bam!

Looks polished, and useable so far.

Out of the box stuff that works:

Intel 4965 Bam!
Sound/Volume Bam!
Bluetooth Bam!
Nvidia Driver Bam!
MSFonts/Antialiasing Bam!
Knetworkmanager Bam!
VirtualBox 1.6.0 (for Suse 10.3) No Go for now, but I will wait on a version as Suse 11 is neww.

I've got the desktop looking very very nice with Seqoe UI fonts and full antialiasing with 96dpi....I'm liking it so far ....since I'm a KDE fan, this is definitely the place to be. Think I'll keep it for a while. D

My Conclusion: it's entirely useable. It will only get better with time as KDE4 evolves.

 

Looking good....

Hope you get the chance to test out Compiz Fusion, which I never got around to do....

 

Anyone know how to install fonts (where) in Suse KDE4? This is slow going, everything I know doesn't always apply here

 

You should be able to install/uninstall software w/ YaST....

 

Thanks, I found it under >Applications>Configure Desktop "Personal Settings" (double duh on me) ...you were right about a learning curve. I know what I want to do, just trying to find out 'where' takes some time sometimes

 

By NVIDIA driver you mean the one that you had to enaabe and download fromo the NVIDIA site ?

 

the system installed it for me when I went into Yast/Hardware....it's the 174.xx driver I think. What I'm having problems with is Knetwork manager getting online, it's flaky....I'm online now....trying to figure out how to replace it with Wicd right now.

 

Can you please post a screenshot with Segoe UI fonts ? I'm using Tahoma 8 for normal text and Trebuchet MS 10 for title with anti aliasing off from 0.0pt to 9.0pt.

When i use Segoe UI it doesn't look very nice (at least not like in Vista )

 

You did not have to add the NVIDIA repos ?
Did it automatically ask you when you clicked hardware ?

 

That's two good Suse reviews in the past couple of days. I'm glad it's working so well for you, Zoid.

As usual with Suse, I can't get the sound to work properly. With 10.3 the volume was just too low. With the new distro, my machine produces no sound at all. I can't find drivers for Creative Audigy 2 ZS anywhere. Any suggestions? Otherwise, I really like this distro.


Edit: forgot to mention that Suse is dual-booted on this machine with Ubuntu. Sound with Ubuntu is perfect, so the card and speakers, etc are working, and I'm clueless. LOL

 

It was late Yes, I did enable the Nvidia and Videolan repo's. But, it installed with something else which suprised me....not sure what I did

 

Well, I'm still evaluating....sound with my intel hda is fine....must be hardware fix somewhere? I feel really really left handed with Suse....still evaluating

 

I finally have it pretty much all set-up on a old XPC I had laying around (used to run Debian) with an Athlon 2600+, VIA KT 266, Radeon 9600, 512 MB ram, WD 160 GB HD, Realtek ALC 650, Netgear WG311v3. After some issues with the refresh rate and the Wi-Fi all seems to be good now.
I actually like the GUI with GNOME (I tried KDE 4 as well) and I am now in the middle of installing XP with VirtualBox see below (I need to use IE for work):



If I run into any issues I will report back.

 

I couldn't get it going in the KDE4 flavor.....that is the non-free 1.6.0 flavor?

 

It's the 1.5.6_OSE
Sorry it took me so long to reply (work and all). Any way good luck with your install.

 

OSE the usb will not work...replace it with the non-free, link above for version 1.6.2, it works great if you follow the guide....good luck...

EDIT: if we're talking Suse KDE4, I don't think it will install until Sun updates for the new distro.

 

You are right USB sure as hell is not even listed as an option and I didn't even notice. I was not planing to tackle that until later on remembering how long it took with my Hardy setup.
Thanks for pointing it out to me but I don't see the link that you are referring to.

 

Here, I've put it my online notes (blog) http://linuxchronicles.wordpress.com/?s=virtualbox
Everything you need to know...simple to follow thru.

 

Updated slightly my micro-review. Good distro for sure.

 

Thanks Zoid,
I now have VirtualBox with USB support running with no issues.
I agree with you openSUSE is very nice but it will take some getting used to.

 

steve p....nice! I'm a kde fan, so I had to go to Mandriva Spring KDE because for me the interface was more intuitive, the package management was more of what I'm used to getting weined on Ubuntu (i.e. same stuff, couldn't find Kompozer in the Suse Repos, and they didn't seem as 'loose' with restricted stuff...ha!) Also, I found my Virtualbox fix which took me back to Kubuntu in the first place. Gnome in openSUSE I've heard is pretty awesome if you're a gnome procliviter

 

I agree with you using Ubuntu on my main lappy it does seem a bit ridiculous to see how rigid they are with the restricted stuff. It seems that you have to look elsewhere and activate outside repositories in order to get anything done. But since I seem to have everything I need setup(Wi-Fi, DVD playback, VirtualBox/USB etc.) at this point and since this is an old desktop I use to play with, what the heck I will keep openSUSE for a while until I get the urge to try something new. Good luck to you with Mandriva and KDE.